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By Brett Gilbert RN, Nurse Consultant for Questek Australia Pty Ltd

Since the 1970’s there has been an exponential growth in information technology. As a result we are being bombarded with masses upon masses of information every day. By attempting to process all the information in a timely and accurate manner we can experience “information overload”. Information overload is a term coined in 1970 by Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock. It is a term that accurately describes what many of us experience everyday in our modern lives. Whether it is by the breathtaking amount of information a search engine such as Google can produce in less than 1 second.

(Results 1 - 10 of about 30,600,000 for information overload. (0.25 seconds))

The amount of spam in your inbox or by the shear number of passwords, pin numbers and access codes we are expected to have committed to memory for instant recall, information overload is an ever present evil in our daily lives. The best way to define information overload would simply be having to much information to know what to do with, and therefore preventing us from being able to make timely decisions and take action.

The aged care sector like many businesses is taking on information technology at a rapidly increasing rate. All staff involved in making decisions in the care of residents find themselves experiencing information overload. Whether it be care staff members getting back up to speed with the status of their residents after a few days off or management staff ensuring that all care plans, progress notes, assessments, forms and charts are being completed in a timely, accurate and up to date manner, it seems that all healthcare professionals are experiencing information overload.

Facilities are expected to produce increasing amounts of documentation to demonstrate the level of care provided in order to obtain an appropriate level of funding from the Federal Government. It is important that documentation systems utilised by facilities reduce information overload rather than amplify it. Depending on your position within the hierarchy of an organisation, the way you view and receive clinical documentation/information will vary greatly.

For the care staff member that has just returned from a number of days off, it is important for them to be informed of pertinent changes in the care and condition of the residents they look after. For that reason it should be integral for the clinical documentation system to enable staff to easily and quickly update their knowledge of any changes in the residents care. To prevent staff from having to sift through the documentation made on all residents, IT based clinical documentation systems can organise within their databases, relationships between staff and residents in their care. By automatically filtering the clinical documentation down to only the residents in a staff members care, staff can gather any pertinent information, get on the floor in a timely manner having confidence that they are able to uphold the duty of care they have to their residents.

For senior clinical staff it is important that they maintain individualised care while having a more global view of the documentation/information being gathered at the facility. Due to the amount of documentation collected it is important that clinical documentation systems highlight issues of clinical significance, whether that be assessments, forms or charts that have not been completed, or recorded observations that are outside of expected ranges. With the coming together of technologies it is now possible for senior staff to be alerted instantaneously of assessment, form or chart entries that require the attention of staff with a higher level of clinical expertise. This can be achieved by the expected ranges within an assessment form or chart being predefined and the clinical documentation system forwarding this uncharacteristic entry to a senior clinician as a high priority message. Senior clinical staff have an alert sent to there DECT telephone informing them they have received a high priority message. Having automatic alerts is just one way that IT based clinical documentation systems can ensure that the right information is reaching the right people at the right time.

IT based clinical documentation systems provide a seemingly infinite amount of information for management to analyse, but with simple filtering they can quickly and easily evaluate the care being provided in their facility. The clinical documentation system provides the manager with the ability to produce analysis and reports that convey all that information in a discernable fashion. Because the IT based clinical documentation system provides all of the clinical information gathered at a facility, management are able to combine this view with their intimate knowledge of the workings of their facility to extract meaningful data. By management informing staff of positive and negative trends in the care provided at the facility, staff are able to focus on what is important, which again reduces information overload.     

As the population ages, the average number of residents per aged care facilities will increase and it is important that clinical documentation systems do not erode the viewing of residents as individuals. As important as the numbers are to the funding arrangements of aged care facilities, we must do everything in our power to prevent a case of caring by numbers. By using an IT based clinical documentation system, staff can be confident that the information they collect is not simply an overwhelming task of collecting data for the sake of funding but is in fact guaranteeing the highest quality of life to the people they care for through evidence based practice.